Happy St. Patrick's Day

Both my husband and I have Irish roots. My husband's grandmother is a Davis descended from County Kerry known for its scenic mountains and coastline as well as the Lakes of Killarney. My roots are in County Kildare, home to the shrine of the Celtic goddess Brigid, "woman of poetry, healing, and smith's work" her name means "a fiery arrow." I would love to live up to all of that. It is also where Saint Brigid is from. She was an Irish Christian nun who founded several monastaries.

Brett and I have always loved celebrating St. Patrick's Day.

While he was in college, he would go to Savannah's River Street with fraternity brothers to celebrate it "thoroughly." After college, we found a couple of irish pubs we really liked, and not just for St. Patrick's Day. One was Ireland's Four Provinces in DC, we loved the Irish bands that played there, and I admit, I loved eating a late night shepherd's pie there. But now with kids we have found some other ways to celebrate the Patron Saint of Ireland.

I have to note that this year is the first year that, our son, who is named Patrick, didn't think today was his birthday. Usually he is asking me where his presents are by now since we usually have some sort of party. Alas, this year we have been so busy, we did not do it up as we usually like to. However, we did try to keep the spirit. I bought him this book last year:

It is by Tomie dePaola. I like everything he does! I actually learned a few things from this book:

1) Patrick was English, not Irish

2) He was captured by the Irish and employed as a slave until he escaped about six years later.

3) He returned to Ireland after having a dream that "called" him back to be a missionary

4) How he was conitinually persecuted

5) That he started the first church in Ireland out of a barn.

The book also has a section at the back that tells the legends about St. Patrick, such as how he drove snakes out of Ireland and how he taught the trinity with a shamrock. As always, dePaola's illustrations are amazing.

After learning more about St. Patrick I am reminded that God calls us to difficult tasks, ones that may even seem impossible. However, we must have faith, we must obey, and we must persevere. Patrick led a life that did that.

"As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverence and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy."-- James 5:11

Now what you really came for, the food!!

Of course, I made our traditional Shepherd's Pies. Tonight I made them in individual ramekins since we all needed to eat at separate times. I just popped them in the fridge and baked them when I needed them. I will say this, the Hungarian paprika is a must, it has such a wonderful flavor, regular paprika is too bland.

Mini Shepherd's Pies

5 medium sized potatoes, sliced
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons cream cheese
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 onion finely chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 teaspoon Hungarian paprika

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pepper

8 oz. tomato sauce

In a medium pot boil the potatoes for about 15 minutes or until tender. Preheat oven to 375'. In a nonstick skillet brown the beef with the onions and carrots. Once browned drain the grease. Add the peas and spices. Add the tomato sauce and heat through.

Divide the beef mixture among 8 6 oz. ramekins.

Meanwhile, drain and mash the potatoes with the milk, butter, and cream cheese.

Top the beef mixture with the potatoes.

Bake for 30 minutes.

You can make this a few hours ahead of time and bake once you are ready to eat. Just bring ramekins to room temperature first.

Leek and Potato Soup
This is my favorite! It is super easy, and leeks are super good for you.

3 tablespoons butter
3 large leeks
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and diced
4 1/2 cups of chicken stock

Melt butter in a dutch oven over medium heat. Clean leeks and cut leeks. Add leeks to the butter, stirring often. Once leeks are tender add the potatoes. Cover and cook until the potatoes begin to soften but are not browned. Add the chicken stock and simmer 30 minutes. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup, you could also puree in a regular blender in batches.

Of course, all this tastes better with Guiness!

Leprechaun Soda 

3 scoops Lime Sherbet

6 oz. Sprite

"May you always walk in the sunshine. May you never want for more. May Irish angels rest their wings right beside your door"

Irish Blessing

Grammy Martinell's Ravioli

I have adapted my Pop-Pop's mom's ravioli. She made these for special occasions, probably Easter or Christmas. I've been told she made these much larger than I do. But the filling and the sauce are the same. It is a favorite in our house. I like to make a batch to give to my Pop as well. So, making these are usually an all day affair. But nothing says love, like homemade ravioli!!

Filling:

1 1/2 lbs. stew meat, chuck- cooked in sauce and then ground

fresh ground pepper

parsley

2 large eggs

1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

1 cup Parmesan-Reggiano cheese, grated

Sauce:

2 29 oz. cans tomato sauce

2 12 oz. cans tomato paste

2 tbsp. sugar

thyme

pepper

marjoram

sweet basil

oregano

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 bay leaves

parsley

Brown the stew meat in a dutch oven with garlic, pepper, and parsely. Once browned add a little water. Cook meat until half done and add the rest of the sauce ingredients. Simmer on low until meat is done. Remove meat with a slotted spoon. Grind meat in a meat grinder. Add 2 eggs, bread crumbs, cheese, and parsley. Mix. If dry add some sauce to the meat so it is moist and not crumbly. Use the middle cutter for grinding meat.

Pasta:

2 3/4 cups flour

3 large eggs

1 tsp. salt

Build a mound with the flour on a pastry mat. Make a hole in the moung and crack the eggs into the hole. Add the salt. With a fork start to mix up the egg and the salt. Once mixed start to incorporate the flour. This gets very messy and you will think it is all ruined, not so! Keep incorporating the flour with your hands. If it gets too dry and flaky, add tiny bits of water at a time. Once you have a dough start to knead, as you would bread. Turn the dough a quarter of a turn, push the heel of your hand into the dough, repeat for 5-10 minutes. Don't skimp on kneading time or the pasta will not turn out silky.

Wrap the dough in plastic and let rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes.

Clamp a pasta machine to your counter. Set the rollers at the widest setting, on mine it is "1". Unwrap the pasta dough and cut it into quarters. Work with one quarter at a time, wrapping the other three pieces in the pastic wrap.

Flatten the quarter of dough with your hands, lightly floured. Make it into a rough rectangle Feed it through the machine.

Fold into thirds and run through lengthwise 2 or 3 times.

Turn the setting in one notch and feed through, unfolded.

Continue to do this until you have reached the narrowest setting on the machine.

Use a sharp knife to cut the rolled pasta strip into 18-20 inch lengths.

Using a teaspoon, put about 10 little mounds of the filling along one side of the pasta strips, spacing them evenly.

Either use a pastry brush or use your finger to brush water around the mound of filling. Fold the plain side of the pasta strip over the filling.

Starting from the folded edge, press down gently with your fingertips around each mound, pushing the air out at the unfolded edge. Sprinkle lightly with flour.

With a pasta wheel, cut the long side and then between the mounds to make small squares.

Put the ravioli on floured dish towels, sprinkle lightly with more flour and let dry while repeating the process with the remaining dough. You should get about 80 ravioli.

Tips:

You can reroll the trimmings, to keep them from drying out and becoming unworkable, wrap in plastic wrap.

Once pasta is dried you can freeze for up to 1 month.
Once you are ready to eat, boil for 4-5 minutes and serve with sauce.

Eulogy for Caroline Frances Kolacz Martinell, Grammy

My Grammy was never afraid to give advice among her pearls of wisdom was, “Take care of each other“ and she lived it, as a wife, as a mother, as a grandmother, and great-grandmother, she took care of us and in doing so showed us how to take care of each other.
Grammy lived her childhood amidst the poverty of the Great Depression. Yet, she recalled memories of these days with a thankful heart. She was thankful that her family had a farm, because that meant there was food. She was thankful she slept in the middle of the bed between her two sisters, that meant she was warm. She was thankful to have finished high school, recalling the sacrifice her older sisters made for the family by working at an early age after their father died. But that is what families did, they took care of each other. I’ll never be able to know all she overcame during those years, but I do know she learned some lessons to pass on to us.
The biggest impression Grammy has left on me is in her devotion to my Pop, and it is rivaled only by his devotion to her. A more loving couple you will never find, search if you will, my Gram and Pop chose to love each other through it all. Since the beginning of their marriage, they’ve been taking care of each other. They sacrificed by working alternate shifts so my uncle and dad had parents at home. When Pop suffered his first of many heart attacks Grammy adjusted the menu and cared for him—the rest of us recall that as the “no salt era”. In Grammy’s illness, Pop has cared for her, loved her in such huge ways. My grandparents’ marriage has taught me so much—about how daily love is, how to persevere, how to take care of each other.
Grammy had a zealous kind of love. You know she loved in what she did for you, cooked for you, and sent to you. Grammy would do anything for us kids, I mean anything. I remember, after getting my Polaroid camera, asking her to “pose” for me. We took all the plastic fruit from her counter outside and I made her pose with apple under the tree. I even went as far as to ask her to get up in the tree, she did it. She was that kind of Grammy, the kind of Grammy who played with you. She entered our world when we would play. She knew Pigs in a Blanket were my favorite dinner, so it was always there waiting upon our arrival. My favorite memories are of cooking with her, her showing me how to roll the pig up like diapering a baby. I love the times we’d go visit Aunt Kay together and talk about all the different things you could do with a zucchini. She also used to send me stuff, that made me always know she was thinking of me, whether it was cotton for my nail polish remover, recipes, coupons, or articles from the paper. I especially looked forward to her letters when I studied abroad, a great comfort when far from home and she was my most faithful penpal. And Each and every birthday you could count on a phone call from her and Pop singing in unison. She was always thinking of ways to “take care of us.”
In the past years, I’ve missed being able to call her for advice on cooking, gardening, and cleaning—did you know how many uses there are for baking soda? She did. She also can bake the perfect chocolate chip cookie, cook the perfect pot of chicken soup, and I am convinced that they taste so good because of her secret ingredient: love, her love. So no one else’s will ever quite be the same.

More than once I’ve been told I am like Grammy. My dad once said I was here to replace her. I don’t know about that but I felt a connection to her like I have had to no other person. There are just some things I think we understood about each other. We never spoke them, but they were always there.
My Grammy is feisty—“she’d give you one of these”, strong willed, frugal, spiritual, nurturing, loving,-- If anyone says, “You are just like Grammy” you know that’s a compliment.
When we would visit I got to sleep with Grammy. There is nothing better than laying in bed next to Grammy and saying your prayers, it’s the safest most comfortable place, all is right in the world hearing her say, “Good night, God Bless, tootaloo!” Which I do say to my kids, they smile and think I am silly, but it affords me the opportunity to share with them my memories of a very special Grammy.
And we when we clean with baking soda, or make a batch of pigs, or dance around the kitchen, or sing a little ditty, or work in the garden we will smile and think of her.And now our Grammy is home, we are left with her words to us, “Take care of each other.” That’s what she wants us to do.

Polish Blessing: "Zit-cheh toe-byeh styen-chah, zdrove-yeh, doe-breh poe-vode. Zen-yeh, a poe schmer-chee nyeh-byess-kee kore-oh-knee." I wish you luck, health, and prosperity, and afterward a crown in heaven."

Grandma's 90th Birthday

My Grandma turned 90 right before Thanksgiving. Here is a video of pictures I put together as a tribute--enjoy!

Love,

Steph

Gram's 90th birthday

This past Sunday was Brett's Gram's 90th birthday. I put together this video of snapshots of her life. It was very fun to do and I think she and the rest of the family enjoyed looking back over the years. It is amazing to think of the change she has seen these past 90 years. Now, I am on to work on the same sort of thing for my Grandma's 90th in November.

Family Friday-- When the family tree braches get tangled

My Pop (my dad's dad) told me this story that at first you think, yeah, that's right . . . and then you realize it doesn't make sense at all. Here it is-- in his words, "My mother's mother married my father's father." Reread if you need to.

So that's the abridged version. Here is what actually happened. My Pop's Grammy, his mother's mother was Rose Setta. She married Angelo Francioli in Italy, they had a daughter, Giuseppina (Josephine)--that is my Pop's mother. So, Angelo died while still in Italy and Rose moves with her sister Claudina and her little girl "Pina" to the US. While in America she married Narareno Natalini and had a bunch of kids and she also married Louis Martinell. Louis is my Pop's father's father. They had a daughter Elizabeth.

Louis had previously been married to Laura and they had John and possibly a James Martinell. John married Josephine, or affectionately known as "Pina." They had ten children, one being my Pop. So, his parents, while not related at all, ended up being step-siblings to each other as adults.

That is one of my favorites.

Steph

Family Friday: Bill and Kid Speed

So-- inspired by other bloggers such as Big Mama
who has a fashion Friday which I l-o-v-e and Vicki Courtney
who has a Flashback Friday, I am instituting Family Friday. I have always had a big interest in genealogy, old family stories, and just a love of my family in general-- as much as they may think-- she's crazy, she gives us such a hard time-- no, really I love you all like crazy! So-- I will try to write each Friday on some aspect of family whether it be past, present, or future.

Today I am starting with William "Bill" Frederick Spell and Keziah "Kid" Spell. I have never met them, they are/were my Grandpa's grandparents. He spent a lot of time with them as his own father left when he was 2 and he and his sisters spent lots of time rotating between living with his mother and their grandparents. The Spells are good keepers of family history. Lots has been recorded within the family. They even have a very cool website that has some great stuff on it: recipes, old songs Kid sang, memories, as well as some well-documented family history. I've read some of it before. I was reading it again when a few things really popped out at me. I had just finished reading Beth Moore's Breaking Free that talked about breaking free from generational sin but also cherishing legacies passed down. So, in short, keeping the best and trashing the worst. Good thing to do, I say! Beth even has you record what you have gained from each side and how to evaluate it for your own life. Now-- that is a list you will never see here! =)

On to the legacy I want to record today. It seems that Bill and Kid were extremely involved in their churches. Bill held many leadership roles and even helped begin the Union Church in Covington , Co. Mississippi. From the recorded family history they not only held leadership positions but they truly loved their Lord.

Here is an inspiring and bold speech made "..the most embarrassing feature found in connection with the Sunday School work was the need of bold, fearless, Christian teachers whose moral and Christian characters were above reproach. Teachers who, regardless of blame or praise, would seek to fashion young immortal souls after the image of Him who said, "Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for such is the Kingdom of Heaven."

I love this! He was not afraid to take people to task especially in the Biblical teaching of children. Hooray for Bill. I think I have inherited a bit of that getting up on the "soap box"-- ask anyone. But I'd like to think I also stand up for what is right.

Both Kid and Bill were known to have good voices and could sing very well. That certainly didn't get passed down to me, wish it had. But I will take this-- I will praise the Lord with the voice I have!

Here's my favorite part:
Kid was known for having a spicy temperament, and a well stocked cupboard, especially the "tea cake jar".-- Now this I can relate to!

And this:
Granny was a high-spirited young lady, full of fun. It was always told that she rode a horse to "Midway Soldier Station" and danced 'til she wore holes in the bottoms of her shoes.

This may be my favorite by Frazier Vaughn, one of their grandchildren, my Grandpa's cousin:

"After Grandpa died, one of us Vaughn boys would have to go down and sleep at Granny's every night. We would take turns. We would sleep in the little room off the front porch. Uncle Tom and Granny each had a bed in the big room. Granny was really spoiled. If she wanted a drink of water during the night, she would call to us to get it. She wouldn't drink water that was already in the bucket, she wanted fresh water drawn from the well. And we'd get it, too."

Just before I read this, I had been repeatedly asking Brett to get up and get me water, not just tap water, I wanted the filtered water. Oh, man did he get a kick out of this when he read it. I guess I need not be as spoiled as ol' Granny Kid, huh? From now on I will get my own water. (Brett, please don't hold me to this!)

So-- all in all, I am so thankful to the legacy that Bill and Kid impart: to stand up for what is right, praise the Lord and work for His glory, and to love life.

I am guessing that picture of them doesn't do them justice, huh!